Despite a 2012 constitutional amendment prohibiting marriage equality, same-sex couples applied for marriage licenses in North Carolina as part of the Campaign for Southern Equality's We Do initiative.

The three couples — Rev. Kathryn Cartledge and Elizabeth Eve, Autumn Trama and Amanda McKenzie, and Loraine Allen and Amanda Hilty — are part of the We Do campaign from the Campaign for Southern Equality. All of them had been together for many years but were turned away because North Carolina already bans same-sex couples from getting married.

Gay rights activists have been making the point that the North Carolina ballot initiative goes much further than existing law and bans recognition of things like civil unions and domestic partnerships. But these couples, backed by a parade of supporters, were there to make a statement in favor of marriage equality.